President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won unusual praise from netizens yesterday after he uploaded a sarcastic and self-deprecating video on Facebook in which he responded to his nicknames and ridiculed his own comments over the past eight years.
In a nearly four-minute video posted on Facebook yesterday morning, two days before he leaves office, Ma took a humorous approach to some of the most well-known nicknames given to him by netizens during his two presidential terms, such as “horse-brain jellyfish” (馬腦水母), “death-grip handshake” (死亡之握) and “deer antlers” (鹿茸).
“More than five years have passed since the creation of my Facebook fan page in January 2011, during which time the page has been ‘liked’ by about 1.67 million people,” Ma said in the video.
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
Ma said whenever he has the time, he personally checks the comments on his Facebook page, some of which he said are constructive criticism, while others often left him “not knowing whether to laugh or cry.”
Sharing some of the comments, Ma held up a card showing comments from two netizens, who said a handshake with Ma would lead to certain death, calling it the “death-grip handshake.”
“I never knew my hands were so powerful. I had better take good care of them,” Ma said, before taking out a bottle of moisturizer and applying it to his hands.
The term “death-grip handshake” was coined by users of Professional Technology Temple (PTT), the nation’s largest academic online bulletin board, at the end of Ma’s first term when some netizens compiled a list of the misfortunes that had occurred in nations Ma had visited and to individuals he had met.
“Deer antlers are hair from the animal’s ears,” Ma said, after he mistakenly said in 2014 that deer antlers used in Chinese medicine were actually hair from the animals’ ears. “I admit I made a mistake and I am willing to be punished for it.”
The president then took out an elementary-school notebook and wrote three times the accurate definition of “antlers” as a punishment.
Trying to keep a straight face, Ma then read out a comment that repeated the same question a dozen times: “Are you a horse-brain jellyfish?”
“Baobao is not a horse-brain jellyfish,” Ma said, using the popular Internet slang term “Baobao” (寶寶), or “baby,” which is used as a first-person pronoun to jokingly proclaim oneself cute.
Ma concluded the video by expressing his gratitude to the netizens who have lauded his administration’s achievements, such as the increased number of nations that grant Taiwanese visa-free status, the 2013 launch of an overpass connecting New Taipei City’s Wugu District (五股) and Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅), and Ma’s historic meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) last year.
“Dear fellow netizens, although my eight-year presidential terms are coming to an end, we have fought a good fight ... I will continue to care about Taiwan after leaving office,” Ma said.
As of press time, the video had attracted nearly 220,000 “likes” and more than 23,000 comments, and had been shared about 41,000 times.
Some netizens commended Ma for having the magnanimity to mock himself, while others said the outgoing president’s approval rating might have been far less disastrous if he had posted similar videos sooner.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported that Ma had long been aware of the online criticism and wanted to respond in person, but he did not know how to. He was excited when volunteer workers at the Presidential Office proposed making the video, it said.
The video was also posted on some Chinese Web sites, but sensitive terms, such as the “Republic of China,” were deleted.
A Chinese netizen said Ma’s video was interesting and shows that he is different from Chinese leaders “who live in mansions behind high walls,” while another said: “Our big boss lives in another world — I bet he doesn’t even know how to type.”
NETWORK-MAPPING PROJECT: The database contains 170 detailed files of Taiwanese politicians and about 23 million records of household registration data in Taiwan China has developed a network-mapping project targeting political figures and parties in Taiwan to monitor public opinion during elections and to craft tailored influence campaigns aimed at dividing Taiwanese society, according to documents leaked by Chinese technology firm GoLaxy (中科天璣). The documents, collected by Taipei-based Doublethink Lab, showed a database was specifically created to gather detailed information on Taiwanese political figures, including their political affiliations, job histories, birthplaces, residences, education, religion and a brief biography about them. Several notable Taiwanese politicians are in the database, including President William Lai (賴清德), former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍),
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported yesterday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of about 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces launched their springtime military drills, due to run until Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday oversaw the testing of the multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The test involved 12 600mm-caliber ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies, it said. Kim said the drill gave Pyongyang’s enemies, within the 420km striking range, a sense of “uneasiness” and “a deep understanding
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
RSS